FSU football: High school recruiting IS NOT why FSU fell off in 2024

The Recruiting Mistake FSU Made

FSU had threaded the needle with high school and transfer portal recruiting for the past few years. They gradually started signing better high school players, but signed smaller high school classes while adding more players from the transfer portal. They signed 17 HS players in 2023, and 19 in 2024, and the 2024 class had a 70 percent blue-chip ratio. That was much higher than Miami's.

However, as FSU went 13-1 in the 2023 season, I think they began to focus more on HS recruiting and probably got lazy in their transfer portal evaluations. They relied on taking players they recruited in high school who didn't have much production at their previous stops. I'm talking about players like Earl Little Jr., Marvin Jones Jr. Roydell Williams, Shawn Murphy, Malik Benson, and others. All of these guys were highly rated, and I believe the staff thought they could make it work when 9-10 games in 2024 while concentrating on improving its high school recruiting. After all, they had taken several guys with little or no production in the past and turned them into All-ACC players. Jermaine Johnson, Johnny Wilson, Trey Benson, and Dillan Gibbons come to mind.

The strategy worked as we were heading into the season. FSU had gotten commitments from the top 100 players at key positions like defensive end, defensive tackle, offensive line, and wide receiver. However, as the product on the field took a downturn other teams saw their opportunities to poach most of the talented players from the class.

It's fair to question whether or not FSU would have signed all of those top players because we've seen this staff lose players in the 11th hour of every recruiting cycle. However, they at least had these players committed early at major positions of need. If FSU had the season we expected, I think it's fair to say they likely would have kept most of these guys, while having a chance at a few others.

FSU has young guys from the past few recruiting classes playing significant minutes:

• AZ Thomas
• Jaylen Early
• Omar Graham Jr.
• Daniel Lyons
• Hykeem Williams
• Blake Nichelson
• Edwin Joseph
• Quindarrius Jones
• Andre Otto
• Kam Davis
• Landen Thomas
• Amaree Williams

I think what's most notable is the lack of bodies in the trenches. FSU's inability to block on the offensive line is the biggest issue on the team in 2024. They brought in several transfers to bolster that line while young guys continued to develop. However, injuries and guys not panning out for whatever reason have been a death blow to this offense.

So FSU is playing plenty of young players, just as many as Miami, if not more. Miami just happened to hit on the majority of their portal players in the offseason and FSU didn't.